


Find Me at the End of Time

by River_of_Dreams



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Michael is there but not interacting (yet), Post-Episode: s05e22 Swan Song, The Cage, ambiguous ending, can be read as Samifer pre-slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 11:49:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4220565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/River_of_Dreams/pseuds/River_of_Dreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam Winchester wakes up in the Cage, knowing he's just condemned himself to an eternity of torture. But Lucifer has defied expectations since the beginnings of Time. He will do it again at its end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Find Me at the End of Time

**Author's Note:**

> I had hoped, when I first saw Swan Song, that perhaps Lucifer won't be a sore loser. It took me this long to put that hope into words. This is it.

He comes to, and he’s not in pain.

The former he sort of expected; he’d jumped into the Pit, to not wake up would be a mercy the likes of which simply don’t come the Winchesters’ way. The latter, though, that’s another matter entirely.

He opens his eyes.

He instantly wishes he hasn’t.

The Cage defies definition; his brain, his very soul hurts from trying to comprehend it. It’s still, so still, as if they were all caught in a block of amber, as if time itself ceased to exist.

He can see Michael (what must be Michael) thrashing against the edges of their prison like an increasingly desperate sparrow beating itself against a window pane and it feels as if the Universe could break under the impossibility of that action, any action.

The Universe, maybe. Sam's heart, certainly. Not the Cage.

It says a lot about the state of his mind that he doesn’t look for Lucifer until he hears him whisper:

“Oh, Father, why him? What has he ever done other than try to obey you?“

Compared to Michael’s glory that burns like the Sun (burning itself out), Lucifer looks wan and gray without a vessel, weakened, blackened in places like a singed wad of paper, but he’s still beautiful; a desolate, dangerous kind of beautiful like winter sun over packed ice that is barely binding the force of the ocean beneath.

Sam licks his lips. (He still has lips, he realizes, and there’s wetness on his cheeks, but he doesn’t have any weight; he’s afraid to look at the rest of his body, afraid to glance at the depth certainly beneath him, afraid of falling further, away from the archangels, into the loneliness the Cage exudes like slow poison.)

“I’m sorry,“ he says, his human voice small and rough and out of place here.

Lucifer attention turns to him. Sam can’t say whether he has no eyes or a multitude of them and it’s disconcerting to say the least.

“It should have been just the two of us, Sam. This wasn’t what we agreed on when you said yes.“ The tone of mild reproach, of disappointment, is worse than naked hatred would be.

“I had to. He would’ve stopped us. I’m sorry.“

Lucifer hums, the sound of it (if it is a sound) oddly muffled by the oppressive weight of the Cage. He’s too far, and Sam finds himself drifting closer to him, the expectation of pain easier to bear than the threat of getting lost. They watch for what feels like a long time. (A large part of the lack of time?)

“He’ll hurt himself,“ Sam says. He doesn’t know where the sense of urgency comes from, why he even cares.

“Yes, he will,“ Lucifer replies softly.

Sam looks at him then, takes in the burnt edges of him, the dimmed light. Looks back at Michael, still radiant, and finds some vestiges of anger within him.

“Help him. Stop him.“

“Later. When he’s injured enough to let me.“

“Lucifer.“ It’s a warning, though he’s starkly aware how powerless he is here.

“I know my brother, Sam. Give me this much. I know him. He won’t listen to me, won’t surrender to me. I will have to wait until he’s too weak to fight. Then I’ll put him back together the best I can, and then he’ll probably attack me, or maybe the Cage again, or maybe you, and we’ll have to repeat this many, many times.“ There’s a smile somewhere in there, a wistful, broken smile that tastes like sand. “Don’t worry, Sam. I won’t let you get hurt too much. I appreciate your company.“

It sounds like empty words, like something rehearsed a thousand times, but by then Sam’s drifted close enough to touch, and the cool fringes of Lucifer’s Grace are unexpectedly soothing.

“Aren’t you angry with me?“ Sam whispers, because if Lucifer is about to lash out at him, he’d rather know.

He has an impression of Lucifer’s previous vessel, lips curling up at the corner, strangely gentle.

“No. Fair’s fair, isn’t it? We fought, you won. Sure, I never promised I won’t take it out on you if you manage to jump, but something tells me you’ll be better company like this. Look around you, Sam. I don’t need to punish you any more than this.“

Sam doesn’t. He already knows he’d go insane if he looked too hard. Stare into the abyss and all that. (It takes him longer than it should to realize he’s curled up into Lucifer’s side instead, and that Lucifer let him.)

“Will you help me look for Adam?“ he asks next, because he doesn’t know where Adam is, and he really can’t do this, he wishes he could just keep his eyes closed indefinitely, but the vertigo is even worse then.

Another smile on a borrowed face, this time teasing. He suspects Lucifer gives him those glimpses on purpose, like slipping him a note under the desk in class.

“Say the magic word, Sam.“

Sam takes a breath. (It doesn’t feel like his lungs expanded, at all.) He considers it.

“Please, Lucifer, help me look for my little brother,“ he pleads, and hopes the archangel won’t call him out on his reluctance.

Lucifer’s form, or at least the part of it that’s nestling him right now, grows warmer.  
“Of course, Sam. I will.“

**Author's Note:**

> And then they maybe found some measure of happiness with each other, eventually. Or not. Maybe Sam went slowly insane from the impossibility of the Cage and Lucifer was powerless to stop it. Pick whichever ending you like. I just needed to write this.
> 
> Feedback much appreciated!


End file.
